Cleaning up

I wish that I had the forsight to take a picture of my "sewing room" before I started cleaning it up. I have come to the realization that I have too much, too much food, too much junk, too much fabric and perhaps even too much yarn for what I will be able to accomplish in my lifetime. Somehow I missed the line for too much money, but I do admit to adequate supply.

About 7-10 years ago, I reduced my fabric from fashion and quilting fabric to just quilting fabric and again this year before Christmas, I have reduced the volume of my Quilting fabric. I simply have too.much. UFO's that will never be completed, kits purchased that are still in the wrappers with the price tag on them, bundles of fabric with the pattern in the same bag, just waiting for attention.

With a toddler, a 6 year old, a 16 year old, a husband and a full time job, I simply don't have the time. I realized back this summer that I hadn't quilted in about a year and I was unlikely to quilt much in the coming year (DS#2 is 16 months old) and the "sewing room" was threatening to overflow, I felt as if I were drowning in "stuff" - great stuff none the less, but drowning. I e-mailed my quilting friends and told them that I was cleaning out and that if they wanted anything, they had best claim it, or I could make no promises. Gretchen came and bless her heart, not only did she take a bit of the stuff, she stole 2 UFO's that needed to be pieced together and finished the tops. (THANK YOU GRETCHEN), both were projects near and dear to my heart and now they are patiently waiting for their turn at the quilter. Before Christmas as we were preparing for the annual Christmas Eve feast, DS#1 helped me haul stuff to the attic and I took down the 2nd sewing machine, collapsed the quilting table, sent yet another box and check to Janette for finishing and a box to her for charity quilts and we have renamed the room, "The Media Room". We dragged in 2 rockers and are in the market for a cheap couch of some sort that we have a line on. I feel like it is the end of a chapter in my life. At one time, I was a QUILTER, no doubt about it, but now....knitting has captured my heart, it is so portable and fills the waiting gaps. I will still quilt and I hope that my quilting friends will not abandon me, I can't see why I can't hang with them and knit while they quilt, but we'll see.

My Hobbit Name

Daisy Hamwich of Buckleberry Fern Go Here: http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/, get your Hobbit Name. I LOVE the Lord of The Ring Series...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE... I even wanted a genuine Elvin cloak until I found out that they cost $500! $500! REALLY, well, I'm sure I wouldn't look as good in it as I imagine I might...

Quick Knit

My BIL is bringing someone to Christmas eve dinner and I decided that he should have something to open (as all the rest of us do). I bought some Brown Sheep wool (Black) at my LYS http://www.eweandmefiberstudio.com/ about 2 weeks ago, but did I start them at that time??? Heck no, why would I do that???

So yesterday am, I finally arrived at a proper number and cast on 32 stitches, ribbed for a while and then proceeded to make some fingerless mitts for him. I am hoping that his hands aren't too much bigger than mine. I finished one of them (sans the "thumb") this am between 4:30 and 6. I decided that I liked the ribbing at the top of the mitts. I sent DS#1 to the LYS this afternoon for an emergency skein. I looked at a pattern in the Knitting with Balls book, which called for 200 yards, and I have 200 yards, but I doubled the yarn and well, it is an emergency skein, plus if I get his done with one skein, I can use the other skein for me, me, me or exchange it for something else....I got most of the ribbing done on Mitt #2 at lunch, and I am hopeful that I will finish before Christmas Eve.

I still have to bind the quilt that I am giving to my BIL as I sneakily arranged to receive his name in the family drawing. I have the binding made, just need to sew it on and bind it back...of course by Christmas eve.


Edited to add, Christmas Eve was a good time. Mitts finished, they fit, he loved them, Quilt finished, he loved it. Dishes all cleared away, put away safely for next year by noon on Christmas day, all and all a good even. Oh, number of bottles of wine consumed....only 2, what wimps we are, but what we drank was very, very good wine.

A Shawl for "Granny"

I started knitting this back in July or August 2005 when I was pregnant with DS#2, it was from the Mystery Shawl-along. I knit diligently along on it and it helped with the sanity and the waiting and the laying around (forced), but anyway...I was sick the first of this week, sent the kids to school/sitter and had the day to myself (mostly, DS#1 was home with me) and I decided that I was well enough to block this.

I have never started or completed a lace project, I used some Harris Tweed Shetland 4ply that I purchased from Elann.com. It is a lovely rustic, tweedy barn red-ish. I see now that I might have done a straighter job on the triangle sides, but I love it. The bad thing is that I wore it to work the very next day with black turtleneck and black khaki's and my boss said, "Hey Grandma, hows it going". Hmm, not exactly the response I was hoping for....He was immediately embarrased that he had said such a thing, but now I have something to tease him about. I was a little surprised that no one else at the office made a comment negative or positive especially since I was wearing it so proudly. I am surprised at how warm it is and that eventhough the yarn was fingering weight, when soaked, it bloomed and it does look to be a heavier shawl. I need to take myself to the local welding shop and purchase some stainless steel wires for blocking, it would have been much easier and I need some T-pins. For all the years that I have quilted, I had a tin of straight pins, I must have thrown them away in my cleaning/purging frenzy and I was forced to use thinner pins, but they worked...

More Hats....

For the Soaring Eagle project this time. My Co-worker, Ruth, knits and she has helped me with some hats. She knit her hats in Acrylic (what she had) and I am passing them along to Soaring Eagle. I think there will be at least 10. THANK YOU RUTH!!!

Red Scarf Project

I had promised myself that I would knit on this scarf until it was done and I almost did. I worked on it until I ran out of yarn before the scarf was long enough. Thankfully the LYS, http://www.eweandmefiberstudio.com/ still had some. It is the simple knitted scarf from Stephanie http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/, I tried to link to the specific day, but it is back a bit in the archives the one before Rhinebeck in which she implores a fleece supplier not to sell her fleeces and she spun some lovely yarn from the fleece and left this scarf pattern. Oh, since I can't link it, it goes like this, k1...oh, I can't remember now, I only did it a million times, perhaps it is k2, k1tbl, p1 and repeat, it is a multiple of 4 (duh), but was very simple and soothing for my pea brain. Have the address and will mail it on time,
a rare thing for me... :)